1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a snow shoveling machine and, more particularly, to a small-sized snow shoveling machine arranged such that when an engine is actuated to rotate an auger paddle accommodated in an auger housing, the auger paddle shovels or collects snow and throws the collected snow out from a shooter extending upwardly from the housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various snow shoveling machines have been conventionally known. One example of such snow shoveling machines is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO-62-63708.
The disclosed machine includes a housing in which an engine and an auger paddle are disposed. Actuation of the engine causes the auger paddle to rotate. The auger paddle has auger members provided on right and left sides thereof, and a paddle provided at a central part thereof. The paddle has a surface concavely extending from the right side through the central part to the left side. The central part of the auger paddle serves as a snow throwing portion for throwing collected snow upwardly. As the auger paddle is rotated by the engine, the auger members provided on the opposite sides of the auger paddle carry snow onto the throwing portion. The throwing portion then throws the snow upwardly with a centrifugal force thereof exerted to the snow. The thus-thrown snow exits the machine by passing through a snow throwing aperture formed in the housing and a shooter.
Some of snow thrown by the thrower fails to enter the snow throwing aperture. Such snow falls onto the auger paddle through snow dropping guides. The auger members then carry the snow to the thrower again. The guides are positioned above the auger paddle. In other words, the guides are provided at a lower part of the shooter.
The auger housing inevitably becomes not only large in size but also complicated in configuration because the housing is required to accommodate the engine and the auger paddle. For this reason, the housing is manufactured typically by press-forming a sheet of steel into halved members and then joining the halved members together by welding or the like.
However, in order to meet an increased demand for an easy-to-manufacture snow shoveling machine having reduced weight, it is desirable to form the auger housing with a resinous upper half forming the snow throwing aperture therein and a lower half made of a sheet of steel to provide sufficient rigidity to support the auger paddle. Also, these halves should be connected together. In addition, it is desirable for the snow dropping guides to be provided in the vicinity of the snow throwing aperture.
The paddle serving as the throwing portion provided at the central part of the auger paddle of the snow shoveling machine disclosed in the aformentioned Publication is difficult to manufacture because the paddle surface has a three-dimensional curved configuration.
In order to solve the above problem associated with the paddle, the present application have proposed a snow shoveling machine as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2,556,886.
The disclosed machine includes an auger paddle having valley formed centrally thereof. More specifically, the valley is formed by two flat inclined surfaces to thereby provide a snow throwing portion of V-shaped configuration. The snow throwing portion thus formed by the two inclined surfaces is simple in configuration. Therefore, not only can the auger paddle be produced easily, but snow collected by the auger paddle can be thrown further to thereby provide the machine with improved snow-removing performance.
Although the thus-constructed machine serves to collect snow at the snow throwing portion of substantially V-shaped configuration and to then throw the snow further throw in other snow throwing configurations, there is still room for improvement of the function of collecting and throwing snow.